DOVER IN WAR TIME.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 November 1920, Page 4

DOVER IN WAR TIME.

I .THE MIGHT OF THE NAVY. I (Sydney Morning Herald.) ' Lieut. I)avid Laidley, of the Royal Garrison Artillery, son of Mr Shepheard Laidley, of Rose Bay, returned to Syd- _ ney by the Aseanius last month. He has many interesting stories to tell of j i the difficulties and hardships of life in ' England and France during the,war and j immediately after the declaration of peace. . ' •Lieut. Laidley joined in England as 1 a cadet in July, 1910, and received his, I commission the following November. | j lie was on duty in Woolwich when the j ( terrible explosion took place at Silver- ! : town T.N/i'. explosive factory. A piece j | of boiler, about 18 inches square from j i that factory was landed in the mess . room, of the R.E.A. over four miles dis- J i tant. “ Practically every window in j Woolwich was shattered,” said Lieut, j j Laidley, “and the houses for at least' half a mile around the factory were laid lint on the ground. This was the biggest explosion that ever occurred in ; England, and it was never accurately ; known how many lives were lost as a result, as many of the bodies were shattered to atoms. The fatigue party I was in charge of found and burned at least 70 bodies.” From Woolwich Lieut. Laidley went to France, and after service on the ■Ypres salient was invalided to a London hospital suffering from sciatica. On resuming duty he was transferred to the It.E.A. records office at Dover, and there remained until January of the present year. “These were,” he’said, “ exciting months in Dover. We were right in the line of route of the German raiding airships and areoplanes that periodically visited England. The tisual custom at night was to look if the moon war shining and to pray for fog and ! darkness. Every, moonlight night almost was one of bombardment. Huge ! caves were excavated in the Dover i cliffs, and nightly the women and children went there for safety, and they ' Were in charge of doctors and nurses. 5 j Portions of the caves were litted up as : hospitals, and quite a number of babies . were born in the caves. A siren was | sounded giving the signal when there ! was danger of a raid, and ‘all-clear’ was i j sounded when the danger was believed I past. On one night after the ‘all-clear’ was sounded the raiding German aero- | planes wheeled around and commenced ’ a second bombing of the city, with the [ result that hundreds were trampled on I and many badly injured in the mad rush i back again to the caves. Admiral ( Bacon, who was the administrative officer of the port, ordered that ‘a 11j clear’ was not to be sounded after that calamity until there was some assurance 1 that tile danger of bombing was really I past. This meant that during the later months of the war the women and I children of Dover had their permanent | sleeping quarters in the caves. . ‘ But nothing could be better than J the fortitude and determination of the civil population during the last dread * months. There was a standing military I • order that the civil poulation should he, , permanently in readiness to evacuate I the city inside 24 hours. It was known that big Bertha had been trained on ; Dover, and its bombardment was daily expected. Following the defeat of the i German fleet at the battle of Jutland I the naval and military authorities be- ( lieved that Admiral Tirpitfs would make | one last attempt to justify the existence of the German fleet, and that that would ! quite possibly take the form of a landing I either on the French coast off Dover or i on the coast of England. | “-Besides the tension and uncertainty of these anticipations there was the | continual change in the passing of transports and the movements of units J of the British fleet on desperate but secret efforts. The fire on a large - monitor in the harbour off Dover, believed to be tlie work of a' spy, caused much excitement. It was known this vessel was heavily loaded with high explosive shells, and that if she blew up there was a danger of destroying half Dover. The admiral in charge seeing there was no chance of saving either the crew or vessel ordered her to he torpedoed. Four torpedoes sank the ship and prevented the explosion, though many British sailors and officers went with the ship to the bottorii. It was a remarkable illustration of the gallantry and fortitude of the British Navy. “ Another instance of this was the case of the men who volunteered for the Zeebrugge attack. It was known that this was the nest of the German submarines, and those who volunteered were going to almost certain death. They went out on the adventure, and after suffering the hardships of a North Sea storm for fourteen days returned to i Dover for provisions and refitting. All tlie men were given an opportunity of [ signing off, but to a man they re-volun- \ teered. To be in Dover during the war was to know and appreciate to the full what is meant by the protection and security of the British Navy.”